Thursday, March 27, 2008

While at the doctor's office, I came across this quote in an out-of-date magazine. It's from a man named Lazare Ponticelli, who died recently at the age of 110. He was believed to be the last living French veteran of World War I:

You shoot at men who are fathers. War is completely stupid.

It seems to me that people who have been through a war are seldom in favor of having another one. What do you think that should tell us?

Since it will probably cycle off the front page soon, I'm swiping the picture. I hope The Times won't mind too much.

The Georgia senior guard Sundiata Gaines was the last Bulldog player off the floor. He hung his head low, but had nothing to be ashamed of. He vacuumed up every loose ball, led with a veteran’s aplomb and epitomized the fight this Georgia team had shown for the last week.

I don't date a ton, but I've been basically amazed over the years by the willingness of beautiful, intelligent women to give me the time of day. And it occurs to me, you should always err on the side of asking.

And if you make a fool of yourself, at least you made a fool of yourself for a cause.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

So, I just got out of lunch and I'm walking down 5th Street in downtown Austin talking on my phone. I end the call as I'm crossing the street at the crosswalk, at the last second realize the girl walking towards me has on a Florida shirt.

Without hesitation (TOTAL Tourette's), I yell, and I mean yell - like leaning in and walking towards her with my right hand cupped around my mouth - "BOOOOOOOOOoo Booooooooooooooooooooo Boooooooooooooo!!!!!!"

She literally shifted gears into this quick walk / run so fast that I didn't even realize how inappropriate I was acting, and by the time I did, I was standing alone in the middle of the intersection (because naturally, I followed her off the path of the crosswalk out where the cars are).

Let me back up - so, to onlookers (which were plenty), here is this guy walking down the street in a suit with a briefcase on his shoulder who "boos" a passerby for no apparent reason. Let me add, I have on ZERO UGA clothes right now. To them, I'm sure it looked like a scene straight out of Jackass.

I hope football season comes soon so at least I can have an excuse. That was just wrong and I'm almost embarrassed (who are we kidding, not really but, I do feel bad).

Hey, if she didn't want to get accosted in the street in Texas, the girl shouldn't have gone outside wearing gator clothes.

"Look buddy, your car was upside-down when I got here. And as for your grandmother, she shouldn't have mouthed off like that."- Homer Simpson

Monday, March 17, 2008

I went ahead and called Dan Magill myself. Mr. Magill, as you may know, has been a university bat boy, sports information director, national-title-winning tennis coach, author, Georgia Bulldog Club secretary, club chapter(s) founder, historian and guy we name sports complexes, press boxes and mascots after.

He was at the Yale game in 1929, when we dedicated Sanford Stadium. He was 8.

Mr. Magill still lives in Athens and says this past weekend's run to the SEC tournament title is "absolutely is the most improbable athletic achievement that I've known at Georgia."

So there you go. He said the 1929 victory over Yale was probably No. 2, particularly since we'd lost to "little Oglethorpe" two games before.

He said the weather probably helped us that day, as well. Yale is in Connecticut and back then teams didn't have summer and winter uniforms. So Yale showed up in Athens with heavy uniforms on "the hottest day ever been in Athens in October."

Mr. Magill also said his 1985 tennis team, which started the NCAA tournament as a No. 6 seed, beat No. 3 seed Stanford, the No. 2 seed and then No. 1 seed UCLA to win the National Title. And that all happened in three days.

Even that was "nothing" compared to this weekend's basketball tournament, he said.

I can't put it any better. Having not had the faith, I don't deserve to enjoy this SEC tournament title and NCAA tourney bid. But I think I will anyway.

And someone get Dan Magill on the phone, because this may be the most improbable series of events in Georgia athletic history.

Congrats to the seniors. Congrats to Felton. Congrats to the Bulldogs.

So I called up the NCAA tournament committee and I said, "Hey, where's the Final Four this year? 'Cause I want to make one of those signs that says "Next stop: Wherever the Final Four is." And there was this long pause and then they said: "Sir, are you a Georgia fan?" And I said "Hell, yeah! Go Dawgs!" And then I think they hung up.

Monday, March 10, 2008

I'm speaking to a journalism class tomorrow. That's always a train wreck, so I decided to prepare for a change. And I went through a little file I've kept for years called "good ideas in journalism."

For what it's worth, and with not near enough explanation, this is how I try to go about my job:

Accuracy. Fairness. Objectivity. Timeliness. Context.

You are not in the business of making friends and winning influence. Writing about other people should make you feel terrible quite often.

Go see people in person.

Ask the same question of different people. You may have to ask them more than once

A swamp of facts is only useful if you answer the question on everybody's lips.

It's not always about details. Make sure you understand the core of a thing so you can explain it to your friends with complete accuracy.

Ask yourself: Am I comfortable with this being written in a history book?

Put little trust in facts. Re-examine their veracity from time to time.

Pretty much at least one fact per noun, verb and adjective. Think: What do I know, and how do I know it. Ask your sources how they know things.

Get as close as you can.- The photographer's creed

If you're sitting there with nothing to do, call some people and find out what they want to talk about. Or go see them. Or go look at some public documents. Or buildings. Or watch an intersection work.

File open records requests routinely. You don't have to suspect something.

Don't be overly impressed with power. Or yourself.

There's a thin line between authoritative reporting and editorializing.

Be smart, listen and study. Be difficult to lie to.

No matter how high you get, remember what it's like on the lower levels.

The last 5 percent between 95 percent and 100 percent is the hardest.- Brian Melton

We're not in the business of keeping secrets.- Bernie O'Donnell

It is said that great artists steal. This ain't art.

Use a page in your notebook for texture: Sounds, sights, smells. Things that aren't quotes.- I can't remember whose idea this was

Experiment and technique are fine. But the reader has to come with you.

He joked that his wife Katharyn is in Romania, so maybe she won't find out about the raise. Seriously though, he said he doesn't expect to splurge upon receiving some extra cash: "It’s just more that we can find a good cause we can give it to."

Thursday, March 6, 2008

I ran into Dan Fischer at the grocery store last night. He was a city manager in Colorado, now he works for Mercer University and is pretty much a (hippie) environmental activist/advocate for good planning.

And this isn't exactly what he said, but the idea is the same:

Think, in your heart, what percentage of people in this world are willing to put more into society than they take out.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

He had spoken in the little room near the Courts where the pleaders waited for clients; clients, waiting for pleaders, sat in the dust outside. These had not received a car from Mr. Turton. And there were circles even beyond these - people who wore nothing but a loincloth, people who wore not even that, and spend their lives in knocking two sticks together before a scarlet doll - humanity grading a drifting beyond the educated vision, until no earthly invitation can embrace it.

All invitations must proceed from heaven perhaps; perhaps it is futile for men to initiate their own unity, they do but widen the gulfs between them by the attempt. So at all events thought old Mr. Grasford and young Mr. Sorley, the devoted missionaries who lived out beyond the slaughterhouses, always traveled third on the railways, and never came up to the club. In our Father's house are many mansions, they taught, and there alone will the incompatible multitudes of mankind be welcomed and soothed. Not one shall be turned away by the servants on that verandah, be he black or white, not one shall be kept standing who approaches with a loving heart.

And why should the divine hospitality cease here? Consider, with all reverence, the monkeys. May there not be a mansion for the monkeys also? Old Mr. Graysford said No, but young Mr. Sorley, who was advanced, said Yes; he saw no reason why monkeys should not have their collateral share of bliss, and he had sympathetic discussions about them with his Hindu friends. And the jackals. Jackals were indeed less to Mr. Sorley's mind, but he admitted that the mercy of God, being infinite, may well embrace all mammals. And the wasps? He became uneasy during the descent to wasps, and was apt to change the conversations. And oranges, cactuses, crystals and mud? and the bacteria inside Mr. Sorley? No, no this is going to far. We must exclude someone from our gathering, or we shall be left with nothing.